Not too long ago Pookie was the lucky winner in a Fa La La La Felt giveaway, and we promptly fell in love with every project in the book. Our minds were suddenly filled with visions of Maple Hoo being overrun with adorable felt creations, and in our enthusiasm we ended up buying several miles of various and sundry felt, to build up our stash for impromptu Christmas felt projects. And then the felt sat in a pile in our dining room, patiently waiting for reality to catch up with our grandiose plans. Last night, with Sunday Night Football presenting a not-entirely-interesting backdrop for our handwork time, the time finally came.

We were going to make a little felt owl, and we were going to do it rightnow.

Our first hurdle in our careers as felt ornament makers was the instruction to print the templates in the back of the book, but enlarged 200%. Our little desktop printer/copier is not burly enough to undertake big-assed tasks like “enlarging” (or even “copying in a timely manner”, but that’s beside the point). After a moment’s flagging, we boldly decided we could just wing it. We had the templates in front of us, and could guesstimate what they’d look like times 200%. We were… mostly right. I mean, the end product looks like an owl, so we’re pretty happy with that.

When we went to the Philadelphia Quilt Expo a few weeks ago we stopped in at a booth selling vintage linens and notions; with a mind for all our potential felt projects, we stocked up on button eyes. And there in the bucket of large yellow buttons were these amazing owl eyes. How could we not make an owl with button eyes like these? How??? We couldn’t, that’s how. So, with our creepily anatomically correct button eyes as our guide, we scaled the rest of our owl to fit them.

We learned a lot in the two hours it took to whip this little guy up, not least that we are rank amateurs at the necessary embroidery skills to make adorable felt creatures. But we also learned that the learning curve is not a steep one. Again, it took only two hours, start to finish, to freehand the template shapes, embroider the chest feathers, applique on the belly, eyes, eye surrounds and beak, attach the eyeballs, applique on the eyelids, then blanket stitch his front to his back and stuff him. And look how adorable he is!

Hanging from our mantle, along with our Swedish horsie bunting, the newly minted Hooters H. Puffinstuff looks kinda lonely, doesn’t he? He probably needs friends. An army of friends. Friends whose templates are the right sizes, or ones with different button eyes, or ones in different colors, or ones with — gasp! — old-school Bucilla-style sequining. Yessir, H.H. Puffinstuff is just the tip of the iceberg. Now that we’ve had a taste of felt, there’s no going back.

10 responses to “Give A Hoot, Make Something With Felt”

Those eyes are INSANE!!! I love it! My mom is a whiz at making felt creatures and I always think I should be too. I think it’s a matter of buckling down and doing it, though. I adore felt decorations for Christmas. Very well done, ladies!

Thanks, Sarah! I was actually thinking of your mother’s mad felt creature-making skillz when we were working on HHP here. It was kind of surprisingly freeing just to have at it — we’ve got all kinds of crazy ideas about what we can do next! (But most likely it’ll be more owls. :D)

There is something about owls and felt that just goes together. As I type this I’m looking at my pencil holder which I decorated with a (hideous) felt owl. Woodland mushrooms and squirrels are also ever so cute in felt. And acorns. And elves! And holly leaves! you will be making your own felt Christmas wreath in no time at all!

(I suddenly can’t remember whether you already have that book or not, Sarah. I’m feeling equally that we need to share it with you and that we’ve already talked about it because you have it. I think I’m losing my mind. :P)

:^:::::::::::::::::::::::::::: I worried that his eyes were tiptoeing the line of the creepy threshold, but I think the eyelids mitigated it a bit. Now he looks more startled than staring-through-my-soul (depending on the angle). :P

What a cute owl! Those eyes really take it over the top! I’ve made a few things from that book so far, and my advice _ though it sounds counter intuitive _ is to make more than one of the same item at once to speed things up. If you’re already cutting a circle out of red felt or whatever, cut two or three… or when you’re stitching with red thread, stitch two or three ornaments before switching colors. Sometimes I don’t get farther than cutting out extra pieces, but at least I have them all set for when I do have more time.